San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN) — A humanitarian mission to aid Haitian earthquake victims turned into a major embarrassment in Puerto Rico on Friday when pictures emerged of doctors drinking, mugging for the cameras and brandishing firearms amid the victims’ suffering.

The embarrassment was heightened by the fact that the doctors’ mission was coordinated by Puerto Rico’s Senate.

The commonwealth’s Medical Board called an emergency meeting of its ethics board for Friday afternoon and said it would immediately begin an investigation into whether the doctors involved should be disciplined.
Puerto Rico Secretary of Health Lorenzo Gonzalez called the episode “a sad situation.”